Città della Pieve

In Città della Pieve, I bought an egg beater from a kind woman named Veglia who spoke to me in French, English, and Italian, and told me that my eyes speak to her (Do not try this at home. It has been known to get me into trouble before.). Silvano and I headed next to the internet point which doesn't quite pass as a cafe. Fortunately, they have wi-fi so I can head to this town now and then with my laptop to work. Silvano’s cousin Mario runs the macelleria there, and I picked up two pork chops, two veal chops, 10 slices of bacon, cut to my desired thickness, 100 grams of prosciutto, four sausages, and a bag of polenta for a mere 12 euro. Note that nothing comes pre-wrapped in Styrofoam. Meat is cut as you request it. You just have to know what part of the cut you’re ordering.

Later I met Silvano at the café to go to dinner next door. Enrico, whom I’d seen many times previously at the café, was there, and we had a nice long conversation about painters, artists, photographers, architects, and museums (Lichtenstein, Rothko, Kertesz, Penn, Caravaggio...). He’s a painter and an architect himself and invited me to see his works sometime at his office in town. He also offered his office to me whenever I want to use the internet! People are so nice around here.

Silvano and I had dinner at the restaurant next door where Marco, the owner, joined us for a drink. After a long conversation, Marco asked me if I could draw (design and draw are the same word in Italian) a mural on their wall – I assured him that he wouldn’t want me to… However, we did manage to figure out that I could help them translate their menu into English, and to lay it out on my computer for them. For that, we were offered a limoncello and grappa. Cheers.